Family suspects foul play in surfer's disappearance

By Eloise Aguiar and Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writers

Courtney Marcher moved to Hawai'i just eight weeks ago, following her dream to live in the Islands and become a professional surfer. Now her family fears that something terrible has happened to her.

"At this point, we are hoping she will surface," detective Letha DeCaires said today. "Maybe she has been somewhere else and she'll have an explanation for what has happened."

Police yesterday conducted an air-sea-and-ground search for the 5-foot-7 blond woman who disappeared after surfing at Velzyland, not far from the home she shares with friends.

Marcher's mother rejected any suggestion that her daughter may have drowned because of a medical condition that gives her seizures or that she may have gone to stay with other friends.

"I believe she was abducted from that beach," said Patricia Marcher from her home in Satellite Beach, Fla. "I've heard reports that that beach at V-land has some dangerous criminal elements."

Wahiawa police, who patrol that area, said Velzeyland does not have a reputation for crime, but officers did search the area yesterday, according to a police news release. No evidence of foul play was found, police said.

Courtney Marcher controls her seizures with medication, according to her mother. If she had a seizure, her friends or people at the beach would have noticed it, Patricia Marcher reasoned.

She also said her daughter uses a leash to attach herself to her surfboard. The surfboard — white with stars on it — has not been found.

The young woman is not the type of person who would leave home without her cell phone, purse and medication — all of which were left behind, Marcher said.

"She's not trying to escape," Marcher said.

"She's not that kind of kid."

But she is gregarious, pretty, strong and a good swimmer and surfer, Marcher said, and would have put up a fight if assaulted.

Courtney Marcher moved to Hawai'i from Florida about two months ago, sharing a home with newfound Australian surfer friends. On Sunday she walked to Velzeyland with two friends at about 6:45 a.m., said roommate Vincent Bechet.

While still in the water around 8:50 a.m., she told her friends she was leaving — and that was the last time they saw her, Bechet said. At 1 a.m. the following day, he called police.

Bechet said he has known Marcher for just a short time, but she was always home at night. Finding her cell phone at home made him suspect that something was wrong.

He said it is unlikely that something happened to her at the beach because someone would have noticed it. About 10 people were there and the conditions were clear with 3-foot waves.

But the property adjacent to the beach is overgrown with grass and bushes, Bechet said. People cross that property to get to Kamehameha Highway.

In the short time that Marcher has been in Hawai'i, she has made a lot of friends, Bechet said.

She's friendly and talks to people wherever she goes, including Ted's Bakery where she stopped for coffee every morning, Bechet said.

Marcher held several part-time jobs to support herself and expected to continue her college education once she became a resident of Hawai'i, said her half sister Michelle McHugh. But surfing was Marcher's main interest and she felt that moving to Hawai'i would help in her quest to become a professional surfer, McHugh said from her home in Alabama.

McHugh described her half sister as fearless, beautiful and loving, with a great sense of humor.

This ordeal has placed a lot of stress on the family but they are dealing with it by keeping active and doing what they can to help the investigation, McHugh said.

She said that she created a poster and that police distributed 300 of them on the North Shore.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.